Tim Norwood Running for County Commission on Jobs, Crime and Budgets

Tim and Janice Norwood

BRADENTON -- Manufacturing engineer and self-proclaimed Tea Party Republican Tim Norwood is running for the district 4 seat on the Manatee County Commission. The candidate is campaigning on a platform of budget cuts, jobs and crime reduction.

Norwood, who ran against district 4 incumbent Robin DiSabatino in the 2010 Republican Primary before she was elected to a freshman term, gained 30 percent of the vote in the three-candidate race. He announced a new campaign for the position in May of last year.

He has raised $12,525 in monetary contributions ($11,475 of which was loans from the candidate to his account) and received $3,239 in kind contributions as of the most recent filing date. The two will square off for a second time in the August primary. 

Norwood has said that his opponent has lacked leadership and that he can help bring manufacturing jobs, and work with the Sheriff's office to lower the crime rate in his district. He supports a 10 percent budget cut across the board, with the exception of "essential services" such as law enforcement.

The candidate has also advocated for using impact fee rebates for builders that hire locally and persuading manufacturers to move their businesses to Manatee. He is also opposed to raising taxes. More detailed information on the candidate's plans for said issues were not retrieved, as calls for comment were not returned as of the time of this article's publication.

A graduate of Texas Tech, Norwood has a Bachelor's degree in Architecture. He is married to Janice Norwood, with whom he has done work for the Red Cross. Norwood and DiSabatino square off in a two-candidate open-primary this August.